AFL great Garry Lyon has taken aim at “macho” Adelaide defender Jordon Butts for refusing to take himself off after suffering a head knock in last week’s loss to Geelong.
Butts has been placed in concussion protocols and will miss the next two AFL games despite playing out the remainder of Thursday night’s clash.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Jordan Butts forced to undergo concussion test
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The Crows said Butts reported “mild” concussion symptoms on Sunday, three days after he had a head clash during their narrow loss to Geelong.
They said Butts passed a head injury assessment during the game.
But it took a while for Butts to undergo the test after initially staying out on the field following the head clash with teammate Lachlan McAndrew.
Butts appeared dazed, but played on for a number of minutes before eventually coming from the field to undergo testing, which he then passed.
Butts eventually came off to undergo an HIA. Credit: Seven Lyon said he should have immediately realised the potentially seriousness of the injury and come off straight away in a passionate plea on SEN.
“Concussion remains one of the biggest issues in football, one of the biggest challenges in football,” he begun.
“There are complexities surrounding payouts for players who have had their careers ended and lives uprooted on the back of concussion.
“So, to Jordon Butts, when you get whacked in the head, as you did on Thursday night…
“What is this macho bulls–t of shrugging off the doctor and saying, ‘Get out of my way, I’m good enough, I’ll stay out there’, when the prudent, responsible course of action is to get yourself off the ground, do the HIA, take the pressure off the doctors and the coaches who are sitting in the box.
“We had this farcical situation unfolding with Jordon Butts who gets hit in the head, looks dazed but decides in the best interest of everyone, ‘I’ll stay out here because I don’t know why’.
“Who do you think you’re impressing? Who do you think you’re really impressing by staying out there when you’ve been dazed, the doctor is circling you … Get off the ground, the rotations are happening every five minutes.
“Yet, for some reason, we have this outdated, ‘Oh, I won’t come off, I’m tough’. Get off the ground!”
Lyon said Butts, and all players for the matter, should take responsibility for the entire cohort and come off for appropriate testing.
“Take responsibility, players, for the whole playing cohort I’m talking about. Not just for your own ego by thinking I’ll stay out because I’m tough. That’s not helping anyone these days,” he continued.
“Take responsibility, do the right thing, get off the ground, do your HIA. If you’re no good you’re not coming back on. If it’s all OK you’re back on and you’ve missed five minutes.
“Doing this and trying to hoodwink doctors is not impressing anyone and it’s not helping anyone in the whole process.
“So take responsibility for the whole playing cohort by doing the responsible thing and get off the ground.”
Lyon added further clarification to his pointed comments in a follow-up social media clip.
“What we’re talking about fundamentally is a brain injury, so my want is the player to take that seriously enough to come off the ground on his own bat, that would be the ideal situation,” he said,
“But then the doctors have got a role to play in this as well.”
He argued for the sake of the player, doctors should force them off to do the test regardless of what the player says.
Butts will miss the Good Friday clash against Fremantle and next week’s Gather Round opener against Carlton next Thursday night.